Cristian Fernandez, 12, faces life without parole if convicted of killing his 2-year-old half brother.

12 years oldCristian Fernandez rests his chin on the courtroom bench as the other prisoners arrive in court. Fernandez was arraigned in his first appearance in court, for the murder of his 2-year-old half brother, on Saturday.

Fernandez instantly became the youngest person in city history to face first-degree murder charges. And if convicted, he faces life without parole — although Corey emphasizes that wasn't the goal of what happened last week.

Corey explained Friday how she went from seeing the boy in juvenile court to charging him as an adult. She and her staff spent two months investigating him, having experts test him, discussing options and meeting with the defense.

In the end, she says, one of the key factors was this: juvenile jurisdiction ends at age 21.

"My fear is that whatever has happened to this young man in his short time on Earth cannot be solved in eight years," she said.

That led Biannela Susana to bring her children to Jacksonville. Now she has been charged with manslaughter by culpable negligence in the death of 2-year-old David Galarriago. And her 12-year-old son is a co-defendant, the subject of attention that undoubtedly will go far beyond Duval County.

Charles Stimson, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and author of "Adult Time for Adult Crimes," predicted this case will reignite debate about whether life without parole is constitutional for juveniles.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that it was unconstitutional in non-homicide cases.

"Incarceration activists will use this case, no doubt, as a poster child of their broader effort," he said. "It's nothing of the sort. It's an outlier. The vast majority of people serving life without parole as teenagers are 16- and 17-year-olds."

Stimson is careful not to take a specific stance on this case, other than to say, "There are no winners here. ... It's a tragic, tragic situation."

'They're still 12-year-olds'

It is one that has prompted comparisons to the case of Lionel Tate. In 1999, at age 12, he was charged with first-degree murder for the battering death of a 6-year-old girl in South Florida. Tate's family turned down a plea bargain.

And at age 14, he became the youngest American sentenced to life without parole — a sentence that was overturned by a state appeals court.

Tate returned to prison in 2008, following an armed robbery arrest.

The youngest American ever convicted of murder was Nathaniel Abraham. He wasn't much younger than Fernandez — 11 years and 9 months — when he used a borrowed .22-caliber rifle to shoot an 18-year-old stranger at a suburban Detroit convenience store in 1997. A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder. A judge sentenced him to seven years at a maximum-security juvenile detention center.

Abraham also returned to prison after trying to sell Ecstasy out of the trunk of his car.

Nearly everyone agrees that the best-case scenario is to prevent children from committing violent acts. The debate is what to do after those acts happen. And many argue that a 12-year-old should never be tried as an adult, or face a life sentence.

"There is no 12-year-old on Earth that acts like an adult," said Terry Maroney, Vanderbilt University associate professor of law. "They can do things that can be extremely shocking, but they're still 12-year-olds."

That doesn't mean they aren't dangerous, she said.

"Someone capable of doing that at 12 is almost certainly suffering from a deep disturbance, but I don't think there's a single thing a 12-year-old could do to make me think of him as a functioning adult," she said. "Which, in my view, is what the juvenile justice system is for."

And then there's someone like Aaron Knipis. Today, he's a clinical psychologist and author. But at age 12, he was in trouble. Living on the streets, committing crimes, headed for teen years spent in and out of jail. His experiences convinced him that a long prison sentence for a child only makes it likely that they become a worse person, not a better one.

"You can't make that decision with a 12-year-old," he said. "I think it's a corrupt belief to think you can know the heart and soul of a child and predict the course of their lifetime."

Although Fernandez is the youngest person to be charged with murder in Jacksonville, he hardly is the only young face to be in this situation.

Local children also charged as adults

In the 1990s, 13-year-old Thomas Thompson and 14-year-old Josh Phillips each were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Thompson now is 31. Phillips is 27.

Pat McGuinness recalled working as a defense lawyer for Thompson.

"He had no real appreciation of what was going on," he said. "Someone scuffed his shoes over in the jail, and he seemed more upset about that than the fact he was being tried for first-degree murder."

While sentencing Thompson, Circuit Judge John D. Southwood said he was looking past Thompson's cherub looks to see a heartless young man who, according to testimony, told friends he shot off-duty corrections officer Tammy Jo Johnson simply because she had to die.

"I'm not sure he understood the enormity of what he did," said Southwood, who has been retired for 14 years. "He knew what he did, but it's the enormity of it."

But last week he repeated something he has said since: If he had it to do over again, he would handle that prosecution differently, creating at least the possibility of parole.

He points to the cost of putting someone that young in prison for life. And he points to scientific studies that have shown that the part of the brain responsible for impulsive actions is not developed nearly as early as thought.

"With that science, I know I changed my attitude toward the very harsh punishment of juveniles," he said.

A few years ago the decision to try Phillips as an adult got support from an unlikely place — Phillips.

In an interview with The Times-Union in the Hardee Correctional Institution, Phillips said part of him was thankful he was prosecuted as an adult.

He said he didn't think he'd have been as rehabilitated or mature if he hadn't come to terms with dying in prison. But he also said he still had dreams of getting out.

"Maybe I deserve to die in prison ... but I can't look at it like that," he said. "Doing that is just a cop-out. ... Why would I try to learn anything? Why would I try to improve myself? Why would I try to help anybody if I'm just going to lay down and die in here?"

All of this raises the question of what the future holds for a 12-year-old boy with a very bleak past.

Corey says while her office is building its case, it also is continuing to talk to the defense.

She says she hopes something can be worked out.

"Talking at this point about life without parole is premature at best," she said. "What people need to do is pray for this young man and pray for everybody in the justice system handling this case that something can be salvaged — that this young man can be salvaged.

"What we can't do is blame his mother and his upbringing and excuse what he did."

please resign from social work, your contempt for the people you are there to service is disturbing

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Did I miss something? where is the evidence that this boy is a sociopath? who said he meant to kill his brother? The boy had only external bruising and died two days later, how would Christian know that his blows were fatal? Obviously he should not have been striking his brother, but that bad judgment is a long way from making out murder by a child.

This case is a tragedy, made worse by the State's refusal to compromise. Now when he is acquitted, he will return to foster care, without treatment or guidance and merely be a profoundly troubled kid, who is two years older, with no better direction.

Dear Prosecutor, offer a plea, so justice can be served for both the dead toddler and his brother charged with his death.

I had to notice that all of my posts were removed as well for critisizing the DA - how sad that this paper doesn't permit various opposing points of view on its webpage. Since I never use questionable language in my posts and most periodicals have carried my posts on juvenile issues for years, it has become obviouys that there is a problem on this site. I will not comment again - but I should make note of a problem - when the fourth estate is in bed with the local politicians, you end up with corruption at some level. This case, at its root, is about corruption.

There are natural born killers and sociopaths, I have seen it first hand. I have a brother that started getting into trouble with the law at age 11. He came from a loving home, had family support and plenty of therapy along the way. From the age of 12 he learned to manipulate the system, the therapy and of course managed to always get released. We, his family, ended up being the victims of theft, home burglaries etc... all the while. By the time he was 31 he managed to shoot a police (thank God the officer was not wounded bad and recovered) and was given 45 years at 85% of the sentence (if he manages to get out early). He was and is a born sociopath. He had a perfectly (to him) logical explanation for why the officer was shot and how he was actually the "victim". I am sorry but a 12 year old knows the difference between stealing something and paying for it. With that said, they darn sure know the difference between the life of someone else and taking that life..... and thank GOD my brother is in prison, that is where he needs to be.... and if or when he gets out maybe he won't end up back there? Probably will... the same for "child" he needs to be accountable and locked up for a long time, not therapy and hand holding, telling him "it's not your fault!", you are victim! As much as I am against abortion maybe it is becoming acceptable to me?

I am not going to express an opinion as to how to try this boy. I simply want to point out a couple of points of view that don't seem to have been addressed.
Gifford's shooter has been found to be incompetent to stand trial or to help in his own defense. This would certainly seem to apply to this boy.
If the reason for trying him as an adult is only to maintain custody and control over him past the age of 21, then maybe that age should be extended to 31 (for juveniles) in cases such as this.
Since the facts about such cases come out piecemeal in the news, I haven't tried to follow this case. Did the boy intend to kill? Did he understand that his actions could lead to death? Has he stated that he intended to kill?
If he made such statements, that supports the idea that he is not competent to stand trial.
His brain may or may not be permanently damaged. If it is, the people around him will always be at risk. By the time he is 21, qualified people should be able to guess - with some degree of accuracy - whether or not he can be trusted on parole.
Trial as an adult would, therefore, be indicated. This reserves to the State the option of keeping him housed. Keeping him in the juvenile system guarantees his release at age 21.
Past failures of the detention system should not lead to the abolition of detention, but rather to improvements in it. Detention is costly; the only thing more costly to Society than detention is failure to detain. Juvenile detention is even less humane than is adult detention. But we cannot abolish either of them. Maybe all detainees will have to be kept in isolation?
Any given Society must, in order to protect itself from predators, be able to limit the movements of those predators.

why dont they just go ahead and execute all these people sitting on death row for 20 or 25 yrs. at one time. mabey this would be a deterrant to some of these younger idiots. there is no excuse for the tax paying public to foot the bill to keep them alive all those yrs.